In previous patents by the same Applicant, plastic material profiles for refrigerators and the like provided with a door and an inner door are disclosed having a bellows gasket portion which provides the sealing between the door and the cabinet, wherein the profile and the gasket portion are coupled together, or they are just one integral part obtained by coextrusion of two materials having different stiffness in order to allow, when needed, an easy disjunction of the gasket portion from the profile along their connection area, said profile having a groove suitable to receive, in substitution, a bellows gasket portion, and at least one elastically yielding side flange, which acts as a spring to realize a snap engagement of the profile and of the inner door. Examples of such a structure are described in Applicant's European patent No. 0.146.994 and European patent No. 0.319.087.
In the Applicant's Italian patent application No. 96A000046, a profile of the kind above is described, wherein said groove is defined by a pair of walls which extend vertically or obliquely from a base which in the engaged working position overlaps the door and the inner door along their engagement line. The profile section has, in its intermediate position, an irregular T shape because of a central rib which extends vertically in opposite direction to the one going towards the cabinet. Said elastically yielding side flange, working as an elastic spring, extends from such rib end.
A similar structure, with a T shaped section caused by a rib extending within the space defined by the door and the inner door, is described in European patent no. 0.319.087.
In European patent no. 0.164.994, the profile section is instead substantially U shaped which always extends in the space defined between the door and the inner door, lower than the base of the profile.
In these types of known profiles, the section which extends in the lower portion within the space defined between the door and the inner door can measure between 9 and 12 mm, which is a significant portion of space considering the total space thickness between the door and the inner door.
However, recently, the refrigerator manufacturers have introduced doors with bars or handle supports which do not allow the use of profiles with sections extending within the space under the plane comprising the door/inner door junction line.